


A letter from Claire Redfield

by RedfieldandNivans



Series: Dog Tags [5]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), NivanField - Fandom
Genre: Backstory, Changing the course of things with a letter, Destiny?, Growing Pains, Growing up with Chris, M/M, Nivanfeels, Nivanfield, Pre Edonia, Pre Re6, Slice of Life, The Legendary Chris Redfield, personal stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3806341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedfieldandNivans/pseuds/RedfieldandNivans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes something as simple as a letter in the right hands can make all the difference.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A letter from Claire Redfield

Chris never gave up. 

He never gave up on any _thing,_ any _cause_ , or any _one_ with the potential for good.

Sure, he’s had his moments of weakness and stupidity, but he’s entitled to that. Who hasn’t caved under the weight of the world at one point or another?

Every time something or someone got Chris down he always found his feet again and pushed back. _Always._ Didn’t matter the odds against him. Didn’t matter how much pain he had to endure to get back up. Or how much of himself it cost him to move on. He’d somehow always manage to brush off and continue to fight the good fight.

Growing up with him I knew he was going to do great things with his life. (I don’t think he could be mediocre if he tried.) Dad knew it too. That’s why he forced Chris to enlist when he was old enough.

At least that’s what I remember him telling me when I cried for days at my brother’s sudden absence.

Before college Chris used to get into fights a lot in public school; sometimes he’d get into verbal fights with his teachers but mostly physical fights with other kids. Especially bullies in the schoolyard. Chris had no patience for bullies. (Who am I kidding he still doesn’t.) But oh man, dad used to get so mad at him when he came home after a fight! Chris would try to hide the blood and bruises but mom always knew when he’d gotten into a scrap. She’d tell dad and dad would fly off the handle….

Looking back now I think he just didn’t understand _why_ Chris got into so much trouble. I’m not sure _I_ did at the time.

In hindsight though, I realize Chris was always looking out for the underdogs. He got into fights in defense of the low-income kids who were picked on, or the socially awkward kids who were teased and tortured at every turn, or the kids who just seemed to attract the wrong kind of attention. For some reason my brother convinced himself he could help them all. Even when he was young Chris was challenging the way things were. Trying to break down the negative social hierarchy of the schoolyard.

Chris was playing hero back then.

Then Chris went away for his Reserve Officer’s Training -to ‘learn a thing or two about discipline and responsibility’ as dad put it- and I was left to the realization that I relied on my big bro to always be there for me. So when Chris had to leave to become a pilot for the USAF and we were apart for the first time in my life you could say I was unsteady on my own two feet.

When he left I was shell-shocked. My braver, stronger half had left me to fend for myself for the first time ever and I felt so very lost without him.

I don’t know what he did at that school but when I saw him again three months later he had changed. I guess he changed for the better, but he still had this total stranger vibe about him and it was an awkward reunion after twelve weeks of being apart.

Mom and dad were on the brink of divorce at that point and Chris had no patience for their fighting. He didn’t stay long that first visit.

After the car accident Chris came back home. He had no choice. For the first time in our lives we were truly alone together and it couldn’t have been easy on him. He had to fight to keep our parent’s house. He had to fight especially hard to keep _me_. Aunts and uncles on both sides started to appear after years of silence and long cut ties to claim us like we were a couple of previously untouched commodities that were suddenly worth something….

Chris was barely eighteen and he had to learn to be mom _and_ dad _and_ homeowner _and_ keep his position as upstanding Air Force ROTC student/Officer...

But he didn’t give up.

Chris went on to become Sergeant Pilot after three years of college and I don’t know how he did it but we managed to sell the house a few months later and move on base so he could be closer to work. As soon as I was done high school I jumped into University. God I was glad to get away from him at that point. I _wanted_ to stand on my own feet and take care of myself! Partly because I was itching for freedom, but also because I didn’t want Chris to have to worry about me anymore. If _I_ could have supported _him_ at that point I would have. (Knowing him though he wouldn’t have let me…)

I got my first bike around that time. Guess who bought her for me and taught me how to fix her up? Chris was a little reluctant to hear I wanted my motorcycle license, but at that point he knew better than to argue and besides paying for half of my tuition, Chris paid for my road test and gear.

You know aside from bills and necessary course fees (and all _my_ shit) I don’t remember Chris spending money on anything _he_ wanted. Despite being forced into his military career by our father early on, Chris had finally found a place where he fit in. For a while he was happy too. He got his wings in record time and logged more flight hours than any other pilot could cram into a day. I saw him every other weekend. And even then I had to visit _him_ because good luck prying him away from base in those days! His work consumed him, but it gave him something to focus on.

When he was discharged without honors for getting into it one too many times with his C.O.s I saw a new change in him. I offered him a place to stay and I’m glad he accepted because he’d dug himself into a seriously deep trench of depression.

Chris didn’t talk much about being discharged from the Air Force. It crushed him, but I got the sense he had stood firm for something he believed in, and the idea that he refused to back down even when his rank and position was on the line gave me hope that he would find his calling elsewhere.

What hurt him most was losing touch with the tight-knit family that was his crew. Chris’ co-pilot kept in touch, but there is a bond that my brother described between men and women of combat that fades with distance and time apart. Eventually they all lost touch with him and I had to watch him lose his second family. This time it happened gradually.

Chris almost gave up.

It took months before a good friend of his helped me to pull him back up to the world of the living, but my brother stood up again.

He passed his S.T.A.R.S. exams easily and both he and Barry became part of a new family of Rescue Service agents. At twenty-three years of age my brother had already lived and lost more than any other man his age should have to, and yet he jumped back into the fight because he knew he could do some good.

Honestly there are times when I wish Chris had never joined S.T.A.R.S. or took the Raccoon City assignment. My brother getting caught up in bioterrorism was a blessing for the rest of the world, but it has become his curse.

He’s already given so much of himself to this cause. He’s lost more people in his life than most experienced war veterans between his time with S.T.A.R.S. and now the B.S.A.A… I think you know Chris trusts and looks out for his team wholeheartedly. You guys are his family and each time one of his brothers or sisters doesn’t make it back home, I get to witness a little piece of him die too. I’m not sure how much is left of him…

Seeing my brother continue to fight for a better future for all of us no matter the impossibilities that lie before him, I have no choice but to follow him and support him in my own way. I owe him that much.

I’m telling you all of this because I need to know you’re going into this with open eyes. Chris trusts you and believes in you so much that it scares me a little to know the pressure you must be feeling just following in his footsteps. While your Captain is an uncompromising force of raw determination on the outside, on the inside I know Chris is slowly breaking again.

I need you to take care of him, Piers.

Chris is many things to many people: a leader, a comrade, an inspiration, a father figure, a brother, a partner….

A friend.

I know he means more to you than you’ve ever said to him. It’s there in the way you look at him. I can see it when you’re standing beside him, you both seem to come to life in each other’s presence and I’ve never seen my brother as happy as he seems when you’re there by his side. I know you’d do anything for him, so I know I can tell you all this and it won’t go in one ear and out the other.

Like I said, Chris is strong and brave and sometimes he’s _too_ good and yet he’s had a lot in his life go to shit. I just needed you to understand the _Legendary Chris Redfield_ a little better because he won’t tell you all this himself. To this day Chris’ done an admirable job of scraping himself off the floor when this job crushes him. _He will never give up!_ But now you’re here to help hold him up and just knowing he doesn’t have to stand on his own anymore….

You just might save him in more ways than one, Piers.

I apologize this letter is a long one! I just wanted to get this out to you and I can’t always see the both of you when I want. We all know sitting down for this long talk over a pot of coffee is just not feasible right now. I’ll come visit you boys soon (I told Chris I’d come for at least a week this time), I promise.

Thank you for hearing me out. We haven’t known each other very long but you need to know Chris thinks the sun and moon and stars of you and I know a good guy when I see him. (I _did_ grow up with the original Good Guy after all!)

 

Miss you & can't wait to visit, 

Claire

 

P.S. xoxoxoxoxoxox X1000

P.P.S. _For the love of gravy don’t show Chris this letter!! Ahhhhhh…_


End file.
